Specialists say you can spend annually in the first 2 years of your baby anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 more than your normal expenses. There are always unexpected surprises you might just have to pay for.

Having a new member in the family is a magical moment and brings so much joy to all members. However, there are new additional costs you may never have thought about. Here are some tips on how to save money when you have a baby so you can concentrate on the happiness and on the money stress less.

We split them into categories so we would make this easier for you: hospital savings, baby clothes for less, breastfeeding, and Freebies for mommies.

Hospital Savings:

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As a new mom, you can save exactly after giving birth if you:

1. Turn off the TV. Some of the hospitals charge patients for “televisions privileges”, can you imagine? This will add up to your bill to an $8-$10 per day. Ask the hospital’s personal if there are fees for using the TV first. Use that time to relax and regain your powers instead of watching things you’re already watching at home.

2. Hospital Freebies

Ask for deals and coupons. There are a lot of brands and manufacturers that often give freebies but sometimes the hospital staff is too busy to take them all out. Remind them about the freebies and you might save up to a couple of hundreds. They can range from baby food coupons to diapers, baby soaps and so much more.

3. Ask for items

The ward comes with some products (like diapers, disposable nipples for bottles, thermometers and more) included during your hospital stay. Ask the staff if you could keep the diapers you find in your cabinet as they usually replace them at every patient.

4. Opt for a Normal Room

Prices may vary for a private room from an extra $25 to even $500 a day. If you opt for a 2-person room you can save up to thousands of dollars. Having another soon-to-be-mommy in the room may be encouraging and you can exchange advice and make the time fly easier forgetting the stress. In a private room, nurses come up so often that it won’t be any difference anyway.

Baby Clothes for Less

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5. Shop only for the next season the most

If you want to save money when you have a baby, start preparing before. Buy clothes but not so in advance. You might wake up that you bought a beautiful baby winter coat while your baby was born in the summer. Now you realize he outgrew the jacket much faster then you would have expected. My friend had this experience with her baby girl, Daria and she regretted buying other seasonal clothing and didn’t have the chance to try them on her.

6. Choose unisex colors

Start buying before knowing the sex of the child to start saving money. By buying a few things every month will not be such a financial burden like if you leave them all last minute. So chooise some unisex styles that will apply for both boys and girls.

7. Shoot for Discounts

Look for all-in-ones as they can reach to discounts up to 80%. The defects are minimal, and a baby gets dirty so often that you won’t have the chance to notice that not so perfectly sewn button.

8. Shoes, a lady’s passion, a mother’s nightmare

We love shoes and that’s a fact. But imposing our passion to a newborn baby can be really costly. Shoes sisez are the ones that change so fast that you don’t have many chances to see them wearing them more than a couple of times. So lose the expensive brand or those ones you just had to have because they were so cute. And expensive. Cut it off.

9. Thrift shops, your new best friend

You prepared all your baby clothes, the ones for her christening and everything you might think of. You open Pinterest to relax and see so many incredible shots with babies dressed like ladybugs, dinosaurs, and astronauts. Now you want to buy some costumes and get creative too. Go to thrift shops, you have huge chances of finding unusual and beautiful costumes for your baby. Not only that, but they have a lot of infant baby clothes and extremely low prices too. You can go crazy with your shopping there and it won’t affect your wallet very much.

Breastfeeding

There are ways to save money when you have a baby on this subject, too:

10. If possible breastfeed your baby instead of using powder milk. It’s health and it can save you of $1,500 in the first year.

11. Gather information about lactation before giving birth. Some places have free consultations while other centers may charge up to $300-$400. Some hospitals have a free nursing hotline so doing your research will help you find solutions for free.

12. Borrow a breast pump. A mom needs a breast pump only for 2 years and she can give it away after. Only the plastic attachment should be used by only 1 person. So buy them (they cost maximum $50) and borrow a breast pump (which varies between $200 and $900).

Freebies for Mommies

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When you plan to save money when you have a baby, this is the first place where you should look: The freebies. Many people don’t realize how many options are available to them. By accessing them all you can save up from hundreds to even thousands of dollars per year:

13. EveryDay Family– This site offers samples for babies of a $400. Then, you can subscribe to receive every month samples from Pampers, Enfamil, Huggies, and others. Not to mention the deals they have. Have I mentioned you can win diapers for a whole year if you simply subscribe? Yeah, stop what you’re doing and subscribe there.

14. Enfamil– This known brand can offer you free gifts, including deals, coupons, and testers worth $400 after having a little baby.

15. Parenting.com– A site dedicated to parents. Simply choose the testers you want and they will deliver to your door. You can opt for games, toys, health and care products for toddlers or mommies, strollers, diapers and more.

16. ProductTesting USA– You DEFINITELY definitely want to subscribe here. You might be chosen to test products like expensive strollers, baby packages valued for hundreds of dollars, toys and almost anything you might need when having a baby. It has other categories for electronics and other free products available to test (and keep).

17. P&G EveryDay– Here you can opt for a lot of free samples, from diapers to cleaning products.

18. Pinch Me– A site with a wide variety of samples excellent for a new mom.

By creating a free Target baby registry and score a bag of freebies ( a friend just received $70 pack), at your next road to Target, go to the customer service and ask your bag of freebies. You might need to show your registry at the info desk.

21.Free Baby Box from Walmart– You’ll receive a surprise box for your baby and have to pay only the shipping. ($5). You can choose if you have an infant, toddler or you’re expecting so they would send you the best products. You can ask this box 4 times a year.

22. Welcome Box– From Amazon. Valued at $35 “Welcome Box is available to select customers with active Prime accounts who create and complete a Baby Registry using Checklist and have over $10 of purchases from their registry (from themselves or gifters).”

23. Similac – Receive samples and offers of a total of $400 by signing up.

In order to keep account of all freebies, and to save money when you have a baby note them in your journal and write them on a calendar. Those that can be asked multiple times a year, note them in the calendar as it’s pretty sure you’ll forget in 4 months from now.